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Networks of Power in Manhattan
Federal Hall District The old Capital of America, Federal Hall is surrounded by financial interests, including the New York Fed, 120 Broadway, Bankers Trust, the Stock Exchange and JP Morgan. Federal Hall Federal Hall, built in 1700 as New York's City Hall, later served as the first capitol building of the United States of America under the Constitution, and was the site of George Washington's inauguration as the first President of the United States. It was also where the United States Bill of Rights was introduced in the First Congress. The building was demolished in 1812. Federal Hall National Memorial on Wall Street was built in 1842 as the New York Customs House, on the site of the old Federal Hall. It later served as a sub-Treasury building. In October 1765, delegates from nine of the 13 colonies met as the Stamp Act Congress in response to the levying of the Stamp Act by the Parliament of Great Britain. Drawn together for the first time in organized opposition to British policy, the attendees drafted a message to King George III, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons, claiming entitlement to the same rights as the residents of Britain and protesting the colonies' "taxation without representation". After the American Revolution, the City Hall served as the meeting place for the Congress of the United States under the Articles of Confederation, from 1785 until 1789. Acts adopted here included the Northwest Ordinance, which set up what would later become the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. In 1788 the building was remodeled and enlarged under the direction of Pierre Charles L'Enfant,1 who was later selected by President George Washington to design the capital city on the Potomac River. This was the first example of Federal Style architecture in the United States. It was renamed Federal Hall when it became the first Capitol of the United States under the Constitution in 1789. The 1st United States Congress met there on March 4, 1789, to establish the new federal government, and the first thing they did was count the votes that elected George Washington as the first President of the United States. He was inaugurated on the balcony of the building on April 30, 1789. Many of the most important legislative actions in the United States occurred with the 1st Congress at Federal Hall. Foremost was adoption of the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution; twelve amendments to the Constitution were initially drafted, ten were agreed upon, and on September 25, 1789, the United States Bill of Rights was adopted in Federal Hall, establishing the freedoms claimed by the Stamp Act Congress on the same site 24 years earlier. Also, the Judiciary Act of 1789 was enacted in the building which set up the United States federal court system which is still in use today. Millions of dollars of gold and silver were kept in the basement vaults until the Federal Reserve Bank replaced the Sub-Treasury system in 1920. The building was designated as Federal Hall Memorial National Historic Site on May 26, 1939, and redesignated a national memorial on August 11, 1955. As with all historic areas administered by the National Park Service, the memorial was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. Alexander Hamilton wanted New York to be the offical Capital of the U.S.A, it was only due to wranglings with Jefferson that it was moved to Washington. Federal Hall, New York City could be considered the true capital of America, which makes the location of so much financial power concentrated around it very revealing. The Equitable Building 120 Broadway The white marble of the building is Yule marble, quarried in Marble, Colorado and which is also the source used for the Tomb of the Unknowns and the Lincoln Memorial. The building occupies the entire block, and is bordered by Broadway to the West, Cedar Street to the North, Nassau Street to the East, and Pine Street to the South. The Equitable Building, which is owned by Silverstein Properties, Inc., houses the offices of the New York State Attorney General, Spear, Leeds & Kellogg, Incisive Media, ALM, Lester Schwab Katz and Dwyer, Flycell, Tower Group Companies and others. The original building at 120 Broadway was destroyed by fire before World War I. A new building was completed in 1915 and the Equitable Life Assurance Company moved back to its old site. The building at 120 Broadway was in 1917 known as the Equitable Life Building. It occupies a one-block area at Broadway and Pine, and has thirty-four floors. The Bankers Club was located on the thirty-fourth floor. In 1917, the headquarters of the No. 2 District of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, was located at 120 Broadway. The offices of several individual directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and, most important, the American International Corporation were also at 120 Broadway. Further, there was an important interlock between the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the American International Corporation — C. A. Stone, the president of American International, was also a director of the Federal Reserve Bank. Charles A. Stone and Edwin Webster first met in 1884 and became close friends while studying electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1890, only two years after graduating, they formed the Massachusetts Electrical Engineering Company. The name was changed to Stone & Webster in 1893. Their company was one of the earliest electrical engineering consulting firms in the United States. The firm had offices at 120 Broadway. The American International Corporation (AIC) was organized in New York on November 22, 1915, by the J.P. Morgan interests, with major participation by Stillman's National City Bank and the Rockefeller interests. The general office of AIC was at 120 Broadway. The company's charter authorized it to engage in any kind of business, in any country in the world. The stated purpose of the corporation was to extend American activities abroad, and to promote the interests of American and foreign bankers, business and engineering. Some might see AIC as a precursor to CIA. The CIA was set up as a result of the 1947 National Security Act, so that these activites now had officially granted secrecy, on the justification they were in the national interest. In 1945, two years before the 1947 National Security Act, AIC was merged with The Adams Express Co. The original idea was generated by a discussion between Stone & Webster — the international railroad contractors who "were convinced there was not much more railroad building to be done in the United States" — and Jim Perkins and Frank A. Vanderlip of National City Bank (NCB). The original capital authorization was $50 million and the board of directors represented the leading lights of the New York financial world. Vanderlip writes in his autobiography about how exicted the leading lights of Wall Street were by the idea. They all wanted to be on the board. In a way it represented a merger of all the financial power of Wall Street so they no longer competed, he writes foro example: "I felt very good over getting Sabin. The Guaranty Trust is altogether the most active competitor we have in the field and it is of great value to get them into the fold in this way. They have been particularly enthusiastic at Kuhn, Loeb's." Less than two years after its formation AIC was operating on a substantial scale in Australia, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Colombia, Brazil, Chile, China, Japan, India, Ceylon, Italy, Switzerland, France, Spain, Cuba, Mexico, and other countries in Central America. The Allied Machinery Company of America was founded in February 1916 and the entire share capital taken up by American International Corporation. The vice president of American International Corporation was Frederick Holbrook, an engineer and formerly head of the Holbrook Cabot & Rollins Corporation. In January 1917 the Grace Russian Company was formed, the joint owners being W. R. Grace & Co. and the San Galli Trading Company of Petrograd. American International Corporation had a substantial investment in the Grace Russian Company and through Holbrook an interlocking directorship. AIC also invested in United Fruit Company, which was involved in Central American revolutions in the 1920s. The American International Shipbuilding Corporation was wholly owned by AIC and signed substantial contracts for war vessels with the Emergency Fleet Corporation. Another company operated by AIC was G. Amsinck & Co., Inc. of New York; control of the company was acquired in November 1917. Amsinck was the source of financing for German espionage in the United States. Stock Exchange 11 Wall St. In 1922, a building for offices, designed by Trowbridge & Livingston, was added at 11 Wall Street, as well as a new trading floor called the Garage. Additional trading floor space was added in 1969 the Blue Room, and in 1988 the EBR or Extended Blue Room, with the latest technology for information display and communication. The Stock Exchange Luncheon Club was situated on the seventh floor from 1898 until its closure in 2006 On September 16, 1920, a bomb exploded on Wall Street outside the NYSE building, killing 33 people. The perpetrators were never found. The bombing caused renewed police and governmental investigation into the activities and movements of foreign radicals. It stimulated the development of the U.S. Justice Department's General Intelligence Division of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI), forerunner of the FBI Marine Midland Building 140 Broadway Historically the Home of Guaranty Trust Bank A bombing occurred on the 8th floor on August 20, 1969, injuring 20 people. The primary tenant of the building as of 2010 is Brown Brothers Harriman, Bankers Trust 14 Wall Street The building has an unfinished pyramid at the top. The design is modelled after the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, which is admitedly the inspiration for the Masonic Temple in Washington DC, and a Venetian Bell Tower It occupies the block along Nassau Street from Wall Street to Pine Street and is across from the New York Stock Exchange and Federal Hall. The building was the headquarters of Bankers Trust. Many early skyscrapers took the Venetian bell-tower as a logical model for a modern office tower, but 14 Wall Street was the first to top it off with a temple in the sky, a seven-story stepped pyramid modeled on one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Bankers Trust, for whom the building was constructed, then adopted the pyramid as its trademark, and took as its slogan "A Tower of Strength". It was completed in 1912 by Trowbridge & Livingston and is 539 ft (164 m) tall and contains 37 floors. In its day the world's tallest bank building The 31st floor was once an apartment belonging to J. P. Morgan. 14 Wall Street went on to become a widely recognised symbol of Wall Street and American capitalism. House of Morgan 23 Wall St. Formerly owned by J.P. Morgan & Co. (later the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company) located at the southeast corner of Wall Street and Broad Street. Designed by Trowbridge & Livingston, the somewhat inscrutable building was so well-known as the headquarters of J.P. Morgan & Co., the "House of Morgan" Across the street from this building is the New York Stock Exchange and Federal Hall. Equitable Trust Building 15 Broad Street The building was built for the Equitable Trust Company and was therefore called the Equitable Trust Building. The Equitable Trust Co. was one of the units of the Chase National Bank organizations. The law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell used to be located in the predecessor building from around 1889 and moved out when it was demolished, but returned to the address into the newly completed building and stayed there until 1959. The architects were Trowbridge & Livingston, who also drew plans for the Bankers Trust Co., New York Stock Exchange, Bank of America, J. P. Morgan Bank at 23 Wall Street and other famous Wall Street buildings. The structure was later bought and remodeled as the headquarters of the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, a forerunner of J. P. Morgan Chase & Company. In 1957 the building was linked to neighboring 23 Wall Street Chase Manhattan Plaza One Chase Manhattan Plaza is a banking skyscraper located in the downtown Manhattan Financial District of New York City, between Pine, Liberty, Nassau, and William Streets. The Chase Manhattan Bank president of that time, David Rockefeller, was the prime mover of the construction and the building's location. One Chase Manhattan Plaza is currently occupied by the successor to the "Rockefeller Bank", JPMorgan Chase & Co. Originally, its major tenants included the white shoe firms Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy (then the bank's main outside counsel), Davis Polk & Wardwell and Cravath, Swaine & Moore. Bank of Manhattan Trust 40 Wall Street Originally known as the Bank of Manhattan Trust building, and also known as Manhattan Company Building, it was later known by its street address when its founding tenant merged to form the Chase Manhattan Bank and today is known as the Trump Building. On the evening of May 20, 1946, a United States Army Air Forces C-45 Beechcraft airplane crashed into the north side of the building. Deutsche Bank HQ 60 Wall St. Built between 1987 and 1989 as the headquarters for J.P. Morgan & Co. 60 Wall Street was obtained by Deutsche Bank in 2001 for $600 million. Deutsche bank acquired Bankers Trust via Alex Brown and Sons Lucis Trust 120 Wall Street The Lucis Trust's original address, when they were Lucifer Publishing, was 135 Broadway. Incorporated in the United States in 1922 by Alice Bailey and her husband Foster Bailey. Greenmal Holding Corporation announced that it had obtained a loan in February 1929 to build the 33 story building. The building opened in March 1930, and the original anchor tenant of the building was the American Sugar Refining Company Space in the building was leased to the Foreign Commerce Corporation, the American Sugar Refining Company, the J.G. White Management Corporation, Case, Pomeroy & Company, Anderson & Fox, the Mortgage Bond Company of New York, the Luckenbach Steamship Company, and Coverdale & Colpitts. Since 1980, the building has been owned by the 120 Wall Company, LLC, an affiliate of Silverstein Properties Inc., who purchased it for a reported $12 million In the early 1990s, in cooperation with the City's Economic Development Corporation, Silverstein Properties obtained the designation of 120 Wall Street as New York City's (first and only) Association Center. The designation creates cost-effective office space, and the building has attracted over 35 national not-for-profit organizations, including Pacifica Foundation WBAI-FM, the Lucis Trust & World Goodwill, the world headquarters locations of the National Urban League, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, The United Negro College Fund, the Alan Guttmacher Institute and the Center for Reproductive Rights. World Trade Center Complex Global Headquarters of Goldman Sachs 220 West Street Built with $1 Billion in Liberty Bonds coordinated with the Empire State Development Corporation